


The Making Of A Fire

by The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi



Series: Kehne Ko Jashn-e-Bahara Hai ... [2]
Category: Gully Boy (2019)
Genre: Alia Bhatt, Angst, Bollywood, Bollywood Movies - Freeform, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Ranveer Singh - Freeform, Safeena and Murad, Zoya akhtar, gully boy, mentions of abuse, more a character study than anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24275239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi/pseuds/The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi
Summary: The fire burns within you. What do you feed it, to keep it buring so bright? Where do you shine its soft light?A Gully Boy (2019, Bollywood) fanfiction, starring Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh.
Relationships: Murad Ahmad & Aftab Ahmad, Murad Ahmad & Raazia Ahmad, Safeena Firdausi & Hamida Firdausi, Safeena Firdausi & Murad Ahmad, Safeena Firdausi & Nasir Firdausi, Safeena Firdausi/Murad Ahmad
Series: Kehne Ko Jashn-e-Bahara Hai ... [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752370
Kudos: 4





	The Making Of A Fire

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Gully Boy (2019, Bollywood) fanfic. The movie starred Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.
> 
> Right so I really don't know how this fic is going to be received, but I hope you guys like it :) I've been sitting in this idea for like a year. Putting it up here feels vaguely personal. This is honesty more a character study than a fic but. Oh well.
> 
> Part Two of Kehne Ko Jashn-e-Bahara Hai ...

**Aftab**

Aftab is a proud man. He has  _ accomplished  _ what he has today. He truly believes that this, what he has today, is the height of his achievements. He is too proud to admit his mistakes, and more often than not his decisions have one motivation—to stroke his ego. 

Despite everything—everything that Murad has done, everything the thought of which makes Aftab angry and afraid—he has one concern. One concern—that Murad might fall down to what Aftab had been before he had all this, before he had a job, a house, a wife. 

_ ‘It would be so much easier, all of it would be much,  _ much  _ easier if only he listened to me.’ _ The statement is muttered by both, father and son, on multiple occassions, but somehow it never reaches the ears of the other until one day it does. That day Aftab’s world is turned upside down.

* * *

**Raazia**

Raazia is a proud woman too, but one who has to swallow her pride more than than not. She has never let her pride cloud her judgement, because there are more important things—always things more important than stroking her ego—for which she can sacrifice her pride and accept all humiliation. 

Every gamble she plays is calculated. She knows what she is putting at stake every time she questions or demands something. Growing up in, and being married into, an abusive household has taught her to fight, though. And fight she does, for everything that she deserves. For everything that her sons deserve. For everything that the world tries so hard to pry away from her. 

The first time she holds Murad she knows she is going to raise her child to be everything that his father isn't—everything that Aftab can never dream to be.

She has done well. 

* * *

**Nasir**

Nasir Firdausi knows that he cannot control his daughter forever—or even now, for that matter. She has been a headstrong, fiery spirit ever since she set foot onto this planet, only barely restrained by her imposing mother and society’s mindless rules.

He's proud of her for this, really. Hesitant at first on being so lax, yes—there are so many things that could go wrong, so many horrible things that could happen—but the world is changing, and this does somehow make him feel better about it all. 

His daughter will fearlessly pave her path into the world, and he will be at her side as she does. 

* * *

**Hamida**

Hamida Firdausi is at loss. She doesn’t understand Safeena at all, this fiesty girl that she has borne. She is scared for her the way any mother would be. Constantly scared about the consequences of the actions that 

Safeena takes so boldly, without half a thought, even thinking about which makes Hamida flinch. 

She has controlled, over years, her instinct to shield herself whenever someone makes a sudden movement around her, but she slips sometimes when she thinks of her daughter, her actions, the  _ fight  _ she puts up against everything that Hamida herself has accepted as the way of the world. If there is one thing that her childhood has taught her, it is that actions have consequences. She is terrified of the day they catch up with her daughter. 

It is because of this that Safeena’s desire for freedom enrages her. 

Her rage doesn't quieten until the day she sees Safeena, truly sees her, for what she has become. For what she had always been trying to be. Independent. Confident. Proud. Skilled.  _ Free. _

* * *

**Murad**

Murad has been raised to be a gentleman by the mother he has always seen crying, despairing, abused, by the man who calls himself his father. He has never shown more respect than is necessary to this man, whom he loathes more than anything. He has a different idol. His mother, slaving away uncomplainingly for  _ him _ . Battling the world, for  _ him.  _ Fighting Aftab, for  _ him.  _

He knows from a young age that he can let down the whole world, but not her. He can go against the entire world, but not her. He also knows from a young age that she deserves all the finery in the world, deserves her weary hands to be decorated in the most elaborate of gold. He dreams of the day he’ll be able to seat her on the throne she deserves. 

He meets Safeena in school. She has something the others don’t. A fire. It blazes bright enough that it burns any and all that look too hard, but not Murad. He has seen a fire like this before. Relentless. Ruthless. Endless. He sees her for what she is the first time he meets her. Someone who refuses to bow just because she is told her to. He respected Safeena before he loved her, still does. 

They recognize each other mutually, two people fighting,  _ fighting.  _ Fighting so hard, so relentlessly for that which they both know they deserve. She fights so jovially, though, it is hard to not be charmed.

Sometimes he wishes his own fire burned as brightly as hers, because with a spirit like that, it is hard for the world to put you down. He feels sometimes that she believes in him more than he himself does. He wishes he were that sure of himself. 

“How do you do it?” he asks one day, and the answer is deeper than he had thought it would be.

“To not would be to submit.” She looks at him at that, eyes all but ablaze. “You know I can’t do that.”

He does. He knows better than anyone else.

* * *

**Safeena**

Safeena is born with a fiery streak and she knows it. It isn't easy by any means, nor, as her mother does not fail to remind her, is it  _ safe.  _ But that is the entire point of her rebellion, isn’t it? That freedom is exactly what she is fighting for. She has an ally in the house in the form of her father. Abbu, who had promised to her long before she could understand the meaning of promises that the reins to her life shall rest in her hands and her hand alone.

She still fights for control, though, from her mother, her teachers, her uncles and aunts, the society. It is as if for every bit of power that the universe gave her it gave her opponents ten times more. But she has never let this stop her, and she never will. 

She meets Murad when they are in school, and she thinks that even without the deep set frown always on his forehead he would’ve been easy to single out. He is the only one who doesn't look at her as if she were crazy every time she lashes out. He is the only one who sees. He is the only one who doesn't laugh. He’s the only one who sticks to her side, and she, in return, sticks to his. 

It’s because they have a common cause, she thinks. To rise up and above and not stop. She recognizes the aura that surrounds him all day, every day. The stubborn set to the jaw only fighters seem to have, the determination to pave ways. She sees it everyday in herself too. Maybe that’s why it is so easy to love him, and so rewarding. Every smile that Murad gives is a gift, because his smiles are not easy to come by, usually caught up in the sheer cruelty of the world that they are fighting. 

“How are you so daring?” he asks from the stone steps he is sprawled upon, orange-yellow light from the streetlights dancing on his face. Safeena sees real curiosity there, not malice or contempt—not that Murad would ever hold her in contempt. 

She waits for a single moment before answering, grimacing slightly. "I have to be. If I'm not, how will I get everything that I want in life?" 

It's what she tells herself every morning when she wakes up. 

**Author's Note:**

> A/N : This is how I headcanoned the characters find the motivation behind their actions. It could be different for everyone. Please let me know how you like it. :)
> 
> ~ Ruhi


End file.
